Many prior approaches to providing funnels with shut off elements have been proposed. However, all known prior approaches are somewhat complex and expensive to manufacture, given that they require the valve or occluding element to have substantial weight or spring pressure to assure a complete seal against a hard-to-manufacture distinct valve seat formed in the inner walls of the funnel device.
One such known funnel features a valve which is raised by wires. The valve or occluding element of this known funnel is mounted in the reservoir portion and its sloping sidewalls must match substantially exactly with the tapered walls of the funnel's reservoir in order to provide an adequate liquid-tight seal, this leads to greater expense in manufacturing such a funnel. A further disadvantage of approaches such as disclosed in this known funnel is that the entire outlet spout of the funnel will drain therefrom even after the occluding valve closes, thereby allowing the spillage of excess fluid when one desires to cease the exit of fluid from the funnel outlet.
None of the funnels in the currently known prior art describes a device that allows the user to manually stop and start the flow of liquid in a manner that is simple and easy to manufacture.
Therefore, there is seen to be a need for a funnel with an on/off valve that is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture.